Intellectuals and Civil Society in the Middle East: Liberalism, Modernity and Political Discourse

(Hardback)

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What is the nature of intellectual activity in the Middle East, and what is its role in politics and society While much scholarly attention has been given to the intelligentsia in the West, a comprehensive analysis of the social role of intellectuals in the Middle East has until now been lacking. This new book seeks to fill this gap, providing an overview of the role of influential thinkers in public life in the Middle East, and the impact they have had upon social, political and cultural spheres in the region. Covering a diverse range of key thinkers on the Middle East from Edward Said, Mohamed Arkoun and Halim Barakat to Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi and Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, the book examines intellectuals' connections to social movements, 'street politics' and civil society, and democracy and its prospects in the region. This is an important new contribution to the literature on Middle Eastern societies and politics.

Reviews

'Notwithstanding the number of writings on the role of the intelligentsia in the Middle East, there are a number of thorny issues that go beyond nation state formations in the aftermath of the colonial encounter. Mohammed Bamyeh's volume, Intellectuals and Civil Society in the Middle East moves beyond the problematic of the colonial encounter to open up further venues for discussion that approach civil society sites as a testing ground for legitimacy. Complementing the few studies on the role of the intelligentsia but surpassing them in an aspiration for an inclusive Middle East, this book provides significant inroads and insights into this highly sensitive topic. This is a masterly project and a welcome contribution to a highly important topic in an unfolding era of transformation brought about under the dynamic impulse of the Arab Spring.' Muhsin al-Musawi, Professor of Arabic Literature, Columbia University, New York, and author of Reading Iraq: Culture and Power in Conflict (I.B.Tauris, 2006) and Islam on the Street: Religion in Modern Arabic Literature (2009) 'By considering intellectuals and their publications from Arab and Turkish lands from the seventeenth century through to the present as vanguards, tradition transformers and migrants, this book speaks not only to those who engage Middle Eastern histories and their futures. It also invigorates our sense of public intellectuals and their consequence, particularly when gender, religious and transnational identifications are our frame.' Michael D. Kennedy, Professor of Sociology at Brown University and co-editor of Intellectuals and the Articulation of the Nation (1999) 'Starting from its extraordinarily lucid introduction, Intellectuals and Civil Society in The Middle East lays out in clear sociological terms the ambivalence of the civic engagement and political relevance of intellectuals in the societies of the region. Through the lens of the role of intellectuals in public life, this volume provides both historical depth and a sense of social contingency to the vexed question of the fragile, yet crucial, balancing of tradition and modernity in the Middle East.' Armando Salvatore, author of The Public Sphere: Liberal Modernity, Catholicism, Islam (2010)

Author Bio

Mohammed A. Bamyeh is Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, and the editor of International Sociology Review of Books. He specializes in the study of social movements and revolutions, the comparative history of ideas and global sociology.